BUCKS; Online Source On Benefits

By ANN CARRNS

Published: May 19, 2012

The Social Security Administration is now making annual benefits statements available online.

This is the same statement the government used to mail you every year, showing your annual earnings history and your estimated monthly payment if you retire at your ''full'' retirement age (based on your year of birth), or if you retire early, at age 62. It also tells you what your survivor benefits will be and your benefits if you become disabled.

Last year, the agency cut back on the mailings in an attempt to save money. In February, though, it resumed mailing paper statements to workers who are 60 and older and aren't yet receiving benefits. The agency also said it planned, sometime this year, to begin mailing one-time statements to workers in the year they turn 25. The idea is that the statement will make young workers aware of the availability of the information, so they'll know how to check it online in the future, said Mark Hinkle, an agency spokesman.

But if you are a young person you don't have to wait for the statement in the mail. Everyone 18 or older can already check their information online, Mr. Hinkle said.

More than 250,000 people have registered to check their benefits this way, he said.

To see your information online, register on www.socialsecurity.gov. To do so, you must complete a series of questions to authenticate your identity. I tried it, and it's similar to the system used, for instance, if you open an online bank account or request your credit report online. (In fact, the Social Security site uses information from one of the three major credit reporting bureaus, Experian, to verify your identity.)

I was able to complete the registration in a few minutes, but users unfamiliar with the process may get tripped up if they don't answer carefully. For instance, to verify my identity, one question asked me the name of the bank where I currently send my mortgage payment. We recently refinanced our home, and the options for answers included the name of the bank where we originally borrowed the money - but not the name of the servicer that now accepts our payments. So I clicked ''none of the above,'' which the program, fortunately, accepted.

Another question was a bit puzzling. It said that records indicated I had recently bought pet insurance and asked the name of the pet for whom I had bought it. Hmm. I have no such insurance. So I'm not sure if that was a trick question, or if my credit file has me confused with a sibling, which has happened before. (Anyway, our only household pets are hamsters, whose names were not listed.) So again I clicked ''none of the above.'' I guess that was right, too, because it let me register. Whew.

The agency says it expects that some people won't be able to pass the verification procedure. In that case, they'll be given the option of having a paper statement mailed to them. Or they can go to a local Social Security office to verify their identity in person and then set up an online account.

Also, the site is picky about your user name and password, which over all is a good thing. But because I probably won't check my statement more than once a year, I may not remember the ones I chose, and that is annoying.

Have you checked your benefits online? How did the registration process go?

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.